The final rules released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services specified the initial criteria for eligible hospitals to qualify for an incentive payment by demonstrating meaningful use of certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology. Syndromic surveillance reporting is one of three public health objectives that eligible hospitals can choose for stage 1. The PHIN messaging guide for syndromic surveillance was published for hospitals to construct emergency department data using Admit Discharge Transfer (ADT) messages, with the minimum dataset that is standard among hospitals and public health agencies. Currently New York hospitals are reporting emergency department (ED) visit data to the NY syndromic surveillance (SS) system. Patient chief complaint data are monitored for trends of illness at the community level in order to detect possible outbreaks and situational awareness.
Objective:
To evaluate the readiness and timeliness of ED data submitted by hospitals following PHIN syndromic surveillance messaging guide and to evaluate the availability of minimum data elements. To validate the accuracy and completeness of data from ADT messages compared with data currently reported to the NY syndromic surveillance system.